Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
I set my stuff down on my massive oak desk, gazing heavily at the stranger in my bed. “Why were you waiting for me?” I prompted. “Are you with administration? Did I forget to turn a form in?”
“If you did, that’s not my problem.” She was kind enough to finally get her shoes off my pillow. “I’m your student guide, Katie. Not Kathy. Not Kathleen.” She straightened to her full height—all five feet six inches of gorgeous. This close, I counted the freckles on her upturned nose and the stray strand stuck to pink cupid’s-bow lips. “And not Kay-Kay. Katie, you got it?”
“Got it.” I stuck my hand out. “My name’s Luna. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you,” she mocked, rolling her eyes at my hand and picking up her phone again. “What are we? Fifty-year-old women at a rotary club meeting? Besides, did you miss that two-year-long pandemic we just beat? Who even shakes hands anymore? Ugh, gross.”
My hand returned to my side. “Sorry.” I fought to keep an even tone. Nothing wrong with not being a handshaker, but she didn’t have to look at mine like she just watched me wipe my ass without toilet paper, while dirt smears from her shoes were on my pillow. “Thanks for getting up early for me, but I’ve got my map and orientation packet. I don’t need a student guide.”
“Tough. This shit counts as fifteen hours toward my mandatory volunteer hours. Unfortunately, too many people signed up as student guides, then blew it off. Now they make the freshmen take tests at the end of orientation to prove they were taught all they need to know. You fail and not only do I not get my hours, but they kick me out of the program and I’ll have to do something disgusting like pick up trash or ladle soup to flea-ridden bums.”
“Wow.” I looked her straight in the face. “I don’t think I’ve ever disliked someone so fast.”
To my surprise, she smirked. “Everyone says that at first. Don’t worry, Lu-Lu. I grow on you.” She brushed past me. “Keep up. I’ve got a lot of shit to tell you, but it doesn’t have to take all morning. Sooner we get this done, the sooner Dean is licking my pussy in the library stacks.”
I gaped at her back. My sister warned that this place was like no other school I’ve ever been to.
It’s a university for the wolves.
Quickly, I dumped my stuff and moved my pillow to the laundry basket. Giving myself a quick look in the floor-length mirror, I fussed with my windswept hair and straightened my clothes. The air-conditioning was busted on the bus, so the passengers rolled all the windows down. It barely made a dent in the sweltering heat.
The forty-minute drive in my stepfather’s Audi would’ve been much more comfortable, but I couldn’t put him or my mom through that—dropping another daughter at the gates of hell.
I caught up with Katie halfway down the hall.
“—like other schools,” she was saying. “The first two years are general education classes and the last two are major classes. Since Regalia is super exclusive and each incoming class is limited to one hundred students, you’re split into two classes and the people in yours are on the same schedule with the same professors—except for one or two major prep courses.”
“I was wondering why I was sent a class schedule instead of choosing them.”
We stepped out onto the lawn, soaking in the morning rays. A sea of green was broken by weaving concrete. Again, the brochures didn’t do the place justice. The lawn was awash in stone fountains ringed by manicured gardens of azaleas, begonias, and daffodils. Students gathered on wood and iron benches, studying or talking over their phones. It looked like paradise.
My lips curled. “Where are we going?”
“Cafeteria.” Katie strolled off, her gold-sequin dress glittering and reflecting on the path. “I’m not missing breakfast because of you.”
“Is the food good?” I couldn’t give less of a shit, but talking was something to do while I kept an eye out for Owen. I wasn’t too worried since I knew where the guy slept. Even so, there were cameras in the Abbott Hall corridors. I had to learn his regular routine if I was to find the right place, and the perfect moment.
Katie shrugged. “It’s decent. They make everyone who lives on campus pay for the meal plan. My parents let the staff go on vacation. Unfortunately, our chef decided she needed one too. It’s eat this stuff or starve.”
Katie pointed out buildings, classrooms, the gym, and the library on our way. “Show up to class on time. Profs don’t do ridiculous crap like call roll, but they will notice if you’re forever skipping and sleeping in class. They can get vindictive about it.”